KALAMAZOO, MI -- In Atlantic City, Kalamazoo psychologist Larry Beer spent Thursday evening helping a disheartened Red Cross volunteer refocus on the good she has done rather than the frustration borne of too few resources, too many victims.

In Manhattan, Tami Parke, a colleague of Beer's at Child & Family Psychological Services, PC in Kalamazoo, recalls cradling a barefoot, screaming 4-year-old taken from a cold dark house by a firefighter. "She was exhausted. She just melted into my body and relaxed," Parke said in a telephone interview Friday.

Beer and Parke each are donating almost two weeks of their time to help provide mental health services to those in need, storm victims and exhausted American Red Cross volunteers alike.

"We're a grateful calming presence," Parke said, and a listening ear to the volunteers who have struggled to help those left hurt and homeless by the superstorm that came ashore Oct. 29.

"Sometimes the need is greater than the help they can provide. That's a frustration overall," Parke said. "There are 4,000 people here with the American Red Cross," she said, "but over such a wide area it is still not enough."

Volunteers begin work as early as 5 a.m., and work until 8 p.m., she said. In Manhattan, where she is stationed, she called the drivers who deliver food to to people "unsung heroes.

"I really want to stress this is an amazing group, working really, really hard," she said.

Beer is providing similar assistance to the workers farther down the coast in Atlantic City, NJ.

"I've been assigned to a team of caseworkers who work with people to get them food, shelter and supplies," he said. "I do a lot of listening."

"People are not looking for advice. They are looking to be heard, and appreciated.Sure, some people may be milking the system by taking freebies they don't need," Beer said, "but if you focus on them, it gives you one kind of feeling. If you focus on the many, many who really need help, that's a different feeling."

He tries to help volunteers keep that positive perspective, he said.

Back home, Beer helps patients with anxiety and depression; Parke specializes in grief.

Their patients, too, can feel good about helping storm victims by allowing them to go, willingly rearranging their own appointments, Beer said.

The psychologists will be back home next week. This is the third disaster Parke has worked, and Beer's fifth.